1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for driving a surface discharge plasma display panel, and more particularly, to a method and an apparatus for driving a three-electrode surface-discharge alternating-current plasma display panel (AC PDP).
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, flat display panels such as AC PDPs are required to have large screens, large capacity, and the ability to display full-color images. In particular, the AC PDPs are required to provide more display lines and intensity levels and stably rewrite their screens without decreasing the luminance of the screens.
Conventionally, a line-by-line self-erase addressing method for driving the PDP is proposed. In the prior art driving method, wall charges (which are charges caused on the surface of the wall) remain during the reset period, and decrease the address discharge. Fluctuations in the remnant wall charges narrow the range of the potential for securing the stable operation of the PDP under various conditions. The fluctuations also change an optimum value of the potential, to destabilize the operation of the PDP or lower the display quality thereof.
Further, in another prior art driving method, for example, 256 shades of gray can be realized by dividing a frame into eight sub-fields (which are disclosed in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 4-195188 and Japanese Patent Application No. 4-340498). In this driving method, two to three times of discharge should be carried out in the reset period, to uniformly distribute wall charges and secure stable operation. However, the discharge produces light even when displaying black, and thus the contrast of PDP is deteriorated. Note that the related art and the problems thereof will be briefly explained later.